Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt managed to avoid meeting each other at the 2024 Venice Film Festival.
The controversial exes haven’t been seen in the same room with each other or even on the same red carpet since their split in 2016.
So then, how did Brangelina avoid confrontation at this year’s most high-profile Hollywood event?
Careful planning or a coincidence?
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie both at the Venice Film Festival at the same time
Angelina was expected to attend to support her next big movie. MariaIn which she plays the lead character, opera singer Maria Callas. On the other hand, Brad will reunite with his friend George Clooney for the premiere of Wolves.
It’s perhaps no surprise that the powers that be took steps to ensure that both Oscar winners and former spouses were well taken care of.
But the extent to which this will happen may surprise some people.
In an interview with Vanity Fair, Venice’s artistic director Alberto Barbera said the festival took special care to ensure that films about famous ex-lovers did not appear together on its program.
“Angelina will be on her first day on Thursday [Aug. 29]and she’ll leave right away [‘Maria’ director] Barbera said Brad and Pablo Larraín will be working together for the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado. “So Brad will be arriving in Venice on Saturday. There’s no way they’ll be able to meet each other on the Lido,” the famous island on which the festival takes place.
So, from the start, it was decided that it would be best for everyone to keep Brad and Angelina away from each other.
Honestly, this is the best.
The war between Brad and Angelina is still on
In an interview with Vogue in 2021, Angelina said she split from Brad for the “well-being” of her family. “It was the right decision,” she said at the time.
But the decision proved costly for her, both emotionally and financially.
The couple is still embroiled in legal battles over their assets, particularly the Chateau Miraval winery, since they were married.
Located a nine-hour drive from the Venice Film Festival site, this winery was purchased during Brad and Angelina’s marriage.
A June 2023 Vanity Fair article revealed that Jolie had approached Pitt in January 2021 about her decision to sell her stake in the winery, as it was a wine-focused business.
“It’s still impossible to write this without crying,” Jolie wrote. “Most of all, it’s the place where we brought the twins home, and where we got married on a plaque commemorating my mom. A place… where I thought I’d grow old… but it’s also the place that marks the beginning of the end of our family.”
For some reason, Brad did not accept Angelina’s offer to sell his share in the company/estate. When negotiations failed, he sold his share to Russian oligarch Yuri Shefler for $67 million.
And that’s where the real trouble began – and it’s why they still can’t be in the same room with each other.
Angelina Jolie arrives at Venice Film Festival for ‘Maria’
Brad’s ex-girlfriend Angelina Jolie was the talk of the festival after her stellar performance at the Lido. Maria,
Pablo Larraín’s biopic follows the life of one of the world’s greatest opera singers, Maria Callas, through her final days in Paris in the 1970s.
Angelina sings live in the film, although her voice matches that of the famous Callas, but as she told reporters, she still had to undergo extensive training for this.
“Everybody here knows, I was very nervous,” she said of learning to sing opera at the film’s press conference. “I spent about seven months training because when you work with Pablo you can’t do anything half-assed. He demands in the most fabulous way that you really work and that you really learn and train.”
Brad Pitt will get his turn
Meanwhile, Brad Pitt will be in town for the premiere of his movie with George Clooney. The WolfsOn 1st September.
The two friends will reunite in the action comedy film as two “fixers” hired to kill each other.
The film will arrive on AppleTV+ this fall.
So by the time Brad comes for his premiere, Angelina won’t be there.
And the two will never meet, perhaps never again.